Snack foods are very popular. There are many methods in preparing shaped chip products such as potato chips and other forms of vegetables and grain chips as corn or tortilla chips. Most of methods making chip snacks rely on deep-frying resulting in snacks with 20-45% fat. Fat is high in calories and heavy intake of calories may lead to overweight, which is not desirable. This has created a need for low-fat and fat free snacks.
Other inventors have attempted to produce low fat chips product that have similar taste and features as deep-fried. A curved or wave shape is a desirable feature for snacks from a visible aspect. Furthermore can an uniformed shaped chip product more easily be packed in tubes. Earlier attempts to make shaped low-fat snacks such as using methods of microwave, infrared or radio waves, extruding, steam, hot air and other baking ovens have not obtained desirable taste or needed considerable economic investments or had high running costs.
Generally, there are two very important factors when it comes to food snacks;
taste and price. Therefore there has been an object to produce a shaped fat free chip product, which feels and tastes similar to deep fried chip products in an economical process.
US 2286644 to Pringle et al introduce a method of placing slices of food between open mesh belts and conveying them through deep-frying and then releasing the food snack.
GB1195137 to Liepa et al disclose a method of making uniformly saddle shaped crisp-like edible dough products. The dough is sheeted, cut and then held between two similarly configured moulds during deep-frying until final moister is reached.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,090 by August et al disclose a method of preparing fat free slices of food by conveying a monolayered snacks through infrared heaters then microwave energy and then another infrared zone to brown them into crisp.
EP 0299755 by Szwerc et al disclose a method of making fat free curved snack food. A film of starch and flavours is applied on one side of the food slice, causing the slice to curve when heated in an oven, due to less expansion on the treated side.
WO 94/15481 by Sprecher et al disclose process and apparatus for preparing fat free snacks by conveying monolayered snacks through a numerous wave guides with high intensity microwave field until final crisp and moister is reached. The conveyer belt has curved links so when dough is put onto gravity will form it as the link form.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,965 Childers et al disclose a process where fat free slices of snacks are toasted between dual opposed heating surfaces. The cooking surfaces have a relieved surface so that moister can be driven off. Approximately one half of said surface comes into contact with the produce slices being cooked.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,470,600 by Patelle et al disclose a process where fat free slices of snacks are continuously conveyed and first are heated with infrared then two stages of forced air and finally dielectric radio frequency oven.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,959 by Benson et al discloses apparatus for preparing fat-free snacks. The snacks are conveyed through a stage of infrared heaters from above and burners from underneath, followed by air impingement jets where the snacks are hold in place by a hold down belt from above and finally a hot air zone until desired point.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,277,425 to Nash et al disclose the use of air knifes to cool of extrudate strands before cutting. The product produced can be in the shape of a tube. The extrudate can be fat free.
US 2005118318 to Mihalos et al disclose process and apparatus for forming a wave chip by baking slices of dough and when still warm and soft. The snacks are transported on a conveyer belt into the gap formed between the conveyer and a rotary forming roller. The malleable baked snacks are subjected to a guided curtain of air to cool and set the snacks in a curved or wave configuration.
WO 2009035406 to Fredlund discloses apparatus and process for continuously making fat free food chips by conveying the chips onto a heat source and holding the snacks down with a steam permeable belt. The snacks can be released when still moist and dried by forced air.